I’ve been toying with an idea for a while now. Consider it a thought experiment.
Basically, what if we limited what people could do based on their IQ levels.
I know, that seems a bit oppressive, especially since IQ is something you are more or less born with and can only go down, not up.
But here’s the thing: if you live in an advanced civilization, then high-IQ is a requirement to sustain it. China, for example, has existed for hundreds of years in one form or another as a civilization. While there are many factors that go into building and maintaining a civilization, having a population with a higher end IQ is a must.
You need people who can see and understand the bigger picture, who are less likely to engage in impulsive activities, and who are able to plan ahead beyond where they get their next meal. Low IQ people do not meet these qualifications.
So I say that in order to maintain a civilization, you provide high-IQ people with more privileges in society and deny things to people with lower IQs. Here’s a short list of items I’ve been thinking about:
- If your IQ is 90 or lower, you cannot take out a loan of any kind. More than likely, bankers are going to exploit people whose IQ is that low, largely because they generally face little repercussions when such people go bankrupt or default on their loans.
- An IQ of 100 or higher must be required to vote. Essentially, stupid people shouldn’t be voting and if your IQ isn’t in the triple digits, you shouldn’t bother. Also, many people whose IQ is lower than 90 are often taken advantage of and sold a bill of goods in order to vote for a sleazy poltician.
- You must have an IQ of 110 or higher to run for public office at local and state levels. There are way too many stupid people in public office who are incapable of considering the future implications of their policies. Granted, high IQ people will do this as well, but it acts as a good filter.
- You must have an IQ of 120 or higher to run for public office in Federal elections. I know, there are a lot of people out there who have an IQ of 120 or higher and are complete dipshits. Again, this is about filtering out the stupid ones who think islands will tip over if you put too many ships on one side of it. Also, high office requires a lot of forsight, something that even average people can’t conceive of.
- You will get more votes with higher IQs that happen on a scale. For example, if you have an IQ of 100, you get one vote. At 120, you get two. At 140, you get three. And it keeps on scaling up to five extra votes in elections. Don’t worry, most people would just have one vote normally, but the more intelligent people would be given the benefit of extra representation.
I’m sure there are other aspects of this policy that could be applied as well. Maybe we could provide actual benefits for women with high IQs if they get married and have children. I’ve heard that IQ is passed via the mother more than the father, so this would encourage smarter children to be born.
Enforcing these policies wouldn’t be too difficult though. All you would have to do is have some privately certified tests provide a card with your IQ score on it after taking their test. If you fail to provide the card, similar to a driver’s license complete with picture, then you don’t get any of the benefits mentioned.
People would also have to be retested every few years as well, with the frequency of those tests increasing as they get older, since age degrades brain function.
I know, I’m probably bordering on Utopian thinking here. I personally don’t expect such measures to fix things really. Think of them as more of a preventative measure to maintain an advanced civlization that is operating under a republican form of government.
After all, when you give stupid people a voice, you get debt, welfare, and dysgenics, like we have today.